Monday, July 13, 2009

Savoring the last moments of vacation.

And I mean the last moments. I go back tomorrow, and it is almost 10PM the night before. Sigh. Where are my lottery winnings? Why, oh why do I have to go back??

So, to recount the last two weeks. First, let me say that the only way to make the words "massive gum infection" sound good is to hear them instead of the words "root canal" and "that will be $1000, please." The antibiotic took care of the infection, and the tooth is fine. Thank goodness! I felt bad for a while, and the week left me feeling like I had been rolling boulders up hill all week, but it was survivable. And after Friday, vacation started!!

Right after work on Friday I had to go to the fabric store so that I could get the stuff to make two, count 'em, TWO Amy Butler Patchwork Bags from In Stitches. Vickie and my mom have birthdays that BOTH fell during my week of vacation. Of course, there is no way that I would want to start quilting by making my very first quilted piece, say, with a pattern, or something where the pieces all line up, or even with directions for piecing a quilt, like a rational person. No, I would like to start with instructions like "pieced randomly" with no information whatsoever on how you do anything but assemble straight lines.... I did some winging it, maybe the worst quilting ever in the history of machine quilting, and surprisingly seem to have pulled it off. Thank goodness that busy fabric hides a multitude of sins! Above, see the pieced and quilted side panels for the first bag. It is the one for Vickie.... I worked on this one for days, and honestly didn't have time to get more than hers done. She seems to love it, and Gavin helped me with the "needle machine," which was adorable! Mom's will be blue, and I PROMISE that I will work on it slowly while I am working!! Sewing is always harder work than I remember....

We went to the beach on Sunday, no pictures because I forgot my camera. Sand, sea and hot sun. My mom and I have decided that we are going to get one of those canopy/gazebo thingies that so many people had before we go back, delicate flowers that we are.... I got a wicked sunburn on my feet, 'cause they were sticking out from underneath the umbrella shade. Oh, and the joys of a hot, cranky seven-year-old an hour from home....

So, Friday, no bright yellow yarn in the mail.... I was impatiently awaiting the Jabbersocky from Liberty's Yarn for my Nanner Socks, and wanted it to come RIGHT NOW!! I have no patience whatsoever. Since Saturday was 4th of July, I knew it would be at least Monday before it came, so I started a sock with my pretty Silk Garden Sock that I got in Charlotte. On size zero needles. You may see where this is going. That's right, I started knitting a pair of socks so thick and dense that they would have held water. Could have stopped a bullet with that toe! It was going to be a sock sculpture!! FROG!

And immediately, I took that lovely sock yarn and turned it into a happy rainbow Ishbel! How could you not smile working on that?? I will tell the saga of finishing the Ishbel in the next post with a finished object picture....

Jabbersocky yarn came on Tuesday and I have gotten one sock almost done. Also more on that in a later post. Love the yarn, seriously!

Wednesday we took Gavin to see Up! It was fully awesome. Who am I kidding? We used Gavin as an excuse to go see a kid's movie matinee in the middle of the week.... :-)

Thursday was a trip to the zoo, yet another excuse for grown up fun in a kids venue. We got very, very lucky that the weather was mild, since an outdoor excursion in July can be a little iffy down here. We had great fun! We entered through the Botanical Gardens.

That part was a little lost on Gavin. I managed to find the flamingos RIGHT off. Had you any doubt?

And Mom and Gavin got to feed the giraffes by hand. I wish I had a better picture of that, because they were RIGHT there, it was completely incredible! You would have thought I was the seven-year-old! Or that I was the one feeding them.... (Spawned some mighty weird giraffe dreams later in the week, let me tell you.)

Started to feel a little icky on the way back from Columbia. Spent the rest of the vacation sick as a dog, (I don't understand that phrase, by the way. Just can't think of another way to convey that I have the summer cold from hell and have barely gotten dressed for the last four days of my precious, few and far between, vacation days. Blah.) I think there may be cerebra-spinal fluid leaking from my nose. How else could my nose be running at this rate? Could my head actually be producing snot at this rate?? Surely not! Oh, well. Survivable, but makes for a dull vacation post, huh??

Tomorrow, I will post about all the fun sewing-shopping I have done obsessively over the past couple of weeks! My love for sewing and toe-up socks no no bounds right now!!